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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24606325">What's Mine Is Yours</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucycourageous/pseuds/lucycourageous'>lucycourageous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Legally Blonde - All Media Types, Legally Blonde - Hach/O'Keefe/Benjamin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Slice of Life, oblivious elle, self-deprecating emmett, unproblematic favs</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 08:34:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,215</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24606325</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucycourageous/pseuds/lucycourageous</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Elle Woods likes to steal things from Emmett Forrest, specifically caffeinated beverages, and she's a repeat offender. He thinks the odds of rehabilitation are low.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Emmett Forrest/Elle Woods</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>231</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>legally blonde</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What's Mine Is Yours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I don't know what it is about this ship but I'm obsessed. I wanted to write something a little longer because I love the development of their relationship. Hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time Elle snags his half-full can of Red Bull straight out of his hand, Emmett’s a little bemused, but hey, it was hers to begin with. She’s already let him go through half the cans she keeps on her dorm room shelf, so he’s hardly going to begrudge her the rest of this one.</p><p>
 <em>If these little study sessions are going to be a regular thing, I’m gonna need to buy her some more.</em>
</p><p>He watches her as she walks off with the drink in her hand and Bruiser tucked under one arm, so intently focused on the legal definition she’s giving him that she doesn’t even seem to realise what she’s done.</p><p>Emmett hides a grin and turns back to the list of terms in front of him, “Okay, Woods, how about this one?”</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>***</p>
</div><p>The second time she does it, he’s the one who almost doesn’t notice. The can’s been sitting open near his hand for the last hour, but he’s been so focused on marking these papers that he’s hardly touched it. It’s late November now, about a month or so since he started helping her study, and while there are still evenings – and plenty of them – where he sits there quizzing her, somehow it’s become just as normal for them to sit in silence, him with his work and she with hers.</p><p>There’s a faint rustle to his right and he looks over to catch her just settling back down on her bed, the silver can at her lips as she frowns down at her laptop. For some reason, the sight sends a little jolt through him, and he looks away fast in case she spots him watching her.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>***</p>
</div><p>The third time (which isn’t actually the third time, more like the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth time, but it’s the third occasion he remembers), he sees her reaching for the drink in his hand and offers it up automatically. She gives him a little smile and though he shakes his head mock-chidingly at her, he feels warmth blooming in his chest, because that smile says, <em>‘You know me so well.’</em></p><p>And it’s true, in these little ways and some bigger ways too. He’s seen her basically every day for the last three and a bit months, not just in passing but for hours at a time, and you can’t help becoming attuned to someone’s habits when you spend that much time with them. He wonders, a little nervously, what she’s picked up about him.</p><p>It’s winter break next week, and he knows she’s decided to stay in Boston and study. He’s incredibly proud of her for that, but it’s obviously been bumming her out: she’s been talking less and less about home the closer they get to the vacation, throwing herself even deeper into her work to try and distract herself.</p><p>
  <em>Maybe I should invite her to Christmas lunch with me and mom…</em>
</p><p>“Here,” she says. He blinks, refocusing. Elle is holding the can of Red Bull out to him, returning it.</p><p>This is new ground, unmapped territory, and he’s a little unsure as he takes it from her, his fingertips brushing hers for the briefest of seconds. She grins, reaches out to ruffle his already messy hair – being extremely tactile is another one of those little habits of hers, and it’s one that always leaves him a little bit confused – and flops back onto her bed.</p><p>She likes to study there, even though he’s told her a million times it’s terrible for her posture. All he ever gets in response is an eye roll, and once, a pillow to the face. Tonight, she’s been lying on her front with her book propped open on her pillow, legs up in the air behind her, ankles neatly crossed, looking like nothing so much as a teenager at a slumber party.</p><p>Only when she’s safely ensconced and making notes once again does he look back at the can in his hand. Haltingly, he raises it to his mouth, thinking way too hard about the fact that he’s putting his lips in the same spot where hers were moments before.</p><p>Suddenly his face feels very warm, and he hurriedly sets the drink aside.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>***</p>
</div><p>By the time they’re working on the Wyndham case together in late spring, Emmett’s started to accept the fact that he may be a little bit attracted to Elle Woods. Okay, a lot attracted. Maybe even actually in love.</p><p>It’s not just that she’s brilliant, which she is, or beautiful, which she also is. There’s a contrariness to her, a habit of subverting people’s expectations that delights him, and she’s got enough grit to cover half of Boston. But beyond that, she’s one of the kindest people he’s ever met: he can’t think of one other student in her class who would put their burgeoning legal skills to use the way she did when she helped Paulette get her dog back.</p><p>At the same time, though, he’s also coming to terms with the fact that they might not ever date.</p><p>Cause though he can’t seem to stop thinking about her, he’s pretty sure she only sees him as a friend.</p><p>And okay, he’s basically one of the only people within Harvard she actually hangs out with; and she never seems to be able to stop touching him, whether it’s looping her arm through his or fussing with his hair or even absentmindedly brushing fluff off his jacket.</p><p>And sure, she bought him those new clothes today and said he looked hot and maybe she was looking at him a little differently the whole rest of the afternoon…but that could just be his imagination, and anyway he has absolutely no proof that this isn’t just how Elle treats all her male friends back home in Malibu.</p><p>So he thinks she sees him as a really good friend, maybe even a best friend, but ultimately, not a romantic prospect. Anytime he catches himself hoping for more, he reminds himself that she came all the way over here for Warner, and how can he compete with that? A new suit doesn’t change the fact that he and Warner are poles apart.</p><p>It’s okay, though, he’s coming around to it. Even though every time she does something cute it feels like his heart is about to burst out of his chest, and she’s the only thing he seems to talk about whenever he calls his mom, and when he gets a compliment from Callahan, she’s the first person he wants to tell…well, the only thing worse than not being with her would be losing her friendship altogether. So no, he’s not going to say anything, and yeah, he’d be totally fine if she started dating someone else. No problem at all.</p><p>Tonight they're working late with the other interns, trying to come up with an alternative strategy to defend Brooke in the absence of an alibi. Vivian, Warner and Enid have finally given up on trying to make Elle tell them what it is, but all that means is that they’re now sitting in distinctly frosty silence as they read and re-read the case files.</p><p>Eventually, after they’ve been at it for hours, and with Callahan’s rebuke still weighing on him, Emmett needs a break. He sits back from the desk and twists his stiff back until it cracks, shattering the quiet. Enid makes a face, but he sees Elle stifle a laugh, her eyes flicking up to his just for a moment before returning to her legal pad.</p><p>“I’m going to stretch my legs,” he says, “anyone want anything from the store?”</p><p>The other three chime in with their various requests, and when he’s made a note of each of them, he looks at Elle, “Red Bull? Baby carrots?” Carrots are one of her favourite late night study snacks, and he figures she’ll appreciate something healthy to offset the energy drink.</p><p>She brightens and he can practically feel himself melting under the warmth of her smile. "That would actually be perfect. Thanks, Emmett.”</p><p>With the affectionate look she'd given him fixed in his mind, he heads out into the chilly Boston night, his hands stuffed deep into the pockets of his jacket.</p><p>He snags a basket at the store, loads it up with the various junk foods the others requested. When he gets to the drinks fridge though, there’s only one can of Red Bull on the shelf.</p><p>Damn, he was going to get one for himself too.</p><p>He toys briefly with the idea of heading further into town to check another store but decides against it and grabs himself some soda instead, barely glancing at the label.</p><p>Done, he lugs everything to the checkout and is soon on his way back to campus.</p><p>The others perk up when he comes back in, pushing away their work to rifle through the plastic shopping bag. He passes Elle her carrots and Red Bull, waving away her quiet thank you (she bought him a whole new outfit today for Christ’s sake) and settles back with his own snacks, a bag of chips and the bottle of…oh.</p><p>He really must be tired, cause even though he was aiming for Coke, he’s managed to buy himself a bottle of root beer, which he doesn’t even like.</p><p>“Oh, I didn’t think you liked that,” Elle says, watching him from across the table.</p><p>Can she actually read his mind? He hopes not.</p><p>“I don’t,” he says, wryly, “I think my brain is starting to shut down.”</p><p>“Lack of sleep will do that,” she says, only half-joking. Her eyes linger on his face, probably assessing him for signs of exhaustion and he’s touched by her concern, “You should probably have had a nap sometime between 1992 and now.”</p><p>He laughs. There's a haughty sniff from somewhere in Warner's vicinity and Emmett feels a rare rush of smugness.</p><p>“It’s okay,” she says, sliding the Red Bull can that she’s just snapped open over to him, “you can have some of this.”</p><p>He raises his eyebrows at her and she nods solemnly. With a small snort, he picks it up, drinks some, hands it back, “Thanks.”</p><p>“Gross,” he hears Vivian mutter, but frankly, he couldn’t care less what she thinks. Elle is smiling at him, and she doesn’t hesitate when he passes the drink back to her, just takes a casual sip before going back to work. The can sits between them all night, the two of them taking turns to drink some until it’s empty.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>***</p>
</div><p>They got married on a bright, sunny morning, almost exactly one year after Elle graduated from Harvard. The service was pretty lowkey, so much so that while they were planning it, Emmett worried that Elle would be disappointed that she wasn’t getting the big California beach wedding she’d dreamed of when she was younger. But she’d made it her business to reassure him – repeatedly and convincingly – that she didn’t care where they got married, all that mattered to her was that she was marrying him. Besides, she pointed out, this way, they were saving money and that meant they could move into their own place that much sooner. She was right, of course, and just two years after their wedding, the little apartment on the quiet leafy street in Cambridge is officially theirs.</p><p>There are still a few unpacked boxes lying around – books, mostly – but sitting at the sunny breakfast table in their little kitchen, sipping on a cup of coffee with the deposition for his latest case in front of him and Bruiser dozing under the table at his feet, it’s pretty much as perfect as he could have ever imagined his life being. Emmett still can’t quite believe it.</p><p>The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor from the bedroom makes him look up, his heart missing a beat as it always does when he sees Elle and realises for the hundredth time that she is actually his wife.</p><p>She leans down to kiss him, and he can tell from the smile she can’t quite stifle that she’s just as blindingly happy as he is.</p><p>“Got time for breakfast?” He asks, watching as she grabs a few thick files from the kitchen counter.</p><p>“No,” she says, making a face, “we’re starting early today. I’ll pick something up on my way in.”</p><p>He hums and is reaching for his coffee cup, only for her to swoop in and snatch it first with a mischievous smile.</p><p>He laughs at her, “What is it with you? I offered to make you one, remember? Twenty minutes ago?”</p><p>She giggles, takes a sip and hands it back, “Hey, you signed up for this. And why would I waste a whole cup of coffee when I just want a little bit of yours?” She gives him another quick kiss and heads to the door, bag over her shoulder, files under one arm, “If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t have married me!”</p><p>“I knew what I was getting into,” he calls back, smiling as he hears her laugh.</p><p>“Love you, see you later!”</p><p>The door clicks shut behind her and she’s gone. Emmett looks at his coffee cup and shakes his head, "I should definitely buy a bigger mug."</p>
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